New light shed on the importance and care of onchocercal skin disease
TDR news 1998(55): 5
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 1028-5911 PMID: 12348563 Document Number: 274481
Following the demonstration of onchocercal skin disease's (OSD) public health and social importance in 1994, the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) Task Force on Onchocerciasis Operational Research was asked to assess its economic impact. A multi-country study was subsequently undertaken in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nigeria to measure the effect of OSD upon labor input and the effect of severe reactive skin disease in the household upon school attendance by children. Where the head-of-household had OSD, children were twice as likely to drop out of school compared to other children of the same age from the same community. The relationship was especially strong among girls, who were 2.6 times as likely to drop out of school if the head-of-household had OSD than if the head did not. It follows that onchocerciasis impedes educational development where OSD is highly prevalent. People with OSD spend US$20 more annually on health-related expenditures, 15% of their annual income, than do people without OSD. There are also significant time costs to having OSD. Another study was conducted in Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria to assess the effect of ivermectin treatment upon OSD. Treatment led to a 40-50% decline in severe itching compared to placebo, sustained for up to 12 months after the first treatment. There was also a significant decline in the prevalence of reactive skin lesions following treatment compared to placebo.